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Hello Father,

I am writing to you for some questions about topics where I am a little confused.

In the gospel of John, Jesus is identified as the Logos who is God. Would you clarify the meaning?

Also, would you clarify the relationship between Jesus and God the Father?

Finally, why does the Creed say: “We believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty, maker of heaven and earth…” while it says about Jesus: “through him all things were made”?

So, did Jesus pre-exist before the incarnation, when He became man?

I apologize for the question but I am a little confused.

Best regards

Federico

The Priest’s answer 

Dear Federico,

1. the God revealed by Jesus Christ is a Trinity of persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

The Son is the intelligence of God, the thought of God, the Wisdom of God.

Thought in Greek is called Logos.

In Latin it is called Verbum.

2. In this case, the translation refers to the Latin text of the Gospel of John where we read: In principio erat Verbum.

Now the Latin word Verbum indicates both thought and word.

When it indicates the thought, it is called verbum mentis (tr: thought of the mind), and when it refers to the word it is called verbum oris (tr: word of the mouth).

3. Clearly, God (the Holy Trinity) thought the world at its creation.

He thought it in His mind.

So, it is said in the Gospel that “All things came to be through him (the Logos or Verbum), and without him nothing came to be” (Jn 1:3).

4. Now, coming to your question, in the Creed we say that we believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty, maker of heaven and earth.

Then, Who was the maker: the Father or the Logos, the Son?

Now, we must remember that the three divine Persons are not three gods, but the one God.

Whatever is done by God is the work of the three divine Persons.

Each is present in his own way in the Trinity.

We read in the Catechism of the Catholic Church: “Inseparable in what they are, the divine persons are also inseparable in what they do. 

But within the single divine operation each shows forth what is proper to him in the Trinity” (CCC 267).

5. Therefore, the world originated by God the Father because the Father is at the origin of all things, but all pass through His Thought.

6. You ask again: when we say of Jesus that everything was made through Him, does it mean that Jesus existed before His incarnation?

Now, we must remember Who Jesus is: Jesus is divine Wisdom, the Logos, God who took on human nature.

Then, He assumed human nature about 2000 years ago.

Therefore, He is the creator of the world not as man, but as God.

And again: Jesus pre-exists the world as God, because He is the one who made it.

But He does not pre-exist the world as man because He assumed human nature long after the world was created, that is, just over two thousand years ago.

Wishing that you welcome Him as man and God, I bless you.

Father Angelo